Serve and volley has fallen out of favor, but Taylor Dent keeps on charging.
Of the 256 men’s and women’s players in the U.S. Open main draw, only one consistently incorporates a pure serve-and-volley style to his game: Taylor Dent. Sure, some other players like Michael Llodra and Radek Stepanek will chip and charge, but nobody does it on nearly every point like Dent, and the benefits of the style were on full display Monday during Dent’s defeat of Alejandro Falla.
Commonly rocketing serves at 140-plus m.p.h., Dent put Falla on his heels then attacked the net for a 6-4, 7-5, 6-1 victory. Of course, Dent’s story is well known by now: He spent much of 2007 in a full body cast after multiple back surgeries, but has made a miraculous comeback.
Since the procedures, though, he realizes his best chances for winning don’t come from pounding shots from the baseline. Once upon a time, this was commonplace. Some of the all-time greats like Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and John McEnroe spent the bulk of their matches at the net, and it baffles me that more players don’t do it.
I’d love to see Andy Roddick, with his booming serve, come to the net more. And I think Roger Federer, who is unbelievably good at all parts of the game, will start doing it more as he gets older.
The problem, as I see it, is two-fold. First, the evolution of the game—racquet technology, string tension, player fitness, etc.—now allows more players to be effective from the baseline, which is also an easier style to learn. Second, the serve and volley takes years to master. Junior players will lose a lot of matches at a young age trying to make it work, which often discourages them from continuing to develop that style.
As for Taylor, I talked to him in the hotel lobby this morning, and he was very honest about his game. He knows he has to play sharper—5 to 10 percent better, in his words—in the next round against 5th-seeded Robin Soderling to advance.
In a tournament so far dominated by scorching heat, Soderling’s first-round struggles could come back to haunt him. With court temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, Soderling went five sets in a three-hour grinder with Andreas Haider-Maurer, who was competing in his first Grand Slam main draw. When the conditions are this extreme, strength—both mental and physical—often trumps talent.
I know one thing, if Dent wins, it will be because of that supersonic serve and deft touch at the net. Hopefully, we’ll see that once-prominent strategy in play more at this tournament and beyond.
Nick Bollettieri of the IMG/Bollettieri Tennis Academy has trained many collegiate and professional players, including 10 who reached the world No. 1 ranking.